1. Technical Field
The present application related to a method and apparatus for treating packaging and an installation for filling and closing packaging, including an apparatus for treating packaging.
2. Background Information
Background information is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily admit that subsequently mentioned information and publications are prior art.
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine, which is often a rotary filling machine, with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material.
Some beverage bottling plants may possibly comprise filling arrangements that receive a liquid beverage material from a toroidal or annular vessel, in which a supply of liquid beverage material is stored under pressure by a gas. The toroidal vessel may also be connected to at least one external reservoir or supply of liquid beverage material by a conduit or supply line. In some circumstances it may even be possible that a beverage bottling plant has two external supply reservoirs, each of which may be configured to store either the same liquid beverage product or different products. These reservoirs could possibly be connected to the toroidal or annular vessel by corresponding supply lines, conduits, or other arrangements. It is also possible that the external supply reservoirs could be in the form of simple storage tanks, or in the form of liquid beverage product mixers.
A wide variety of types of filling elements are used in filling machines in beverage bottling or container filling plants for dispensing a liquid product into bottles, cans or similar containers, including but not limited to filling processes that are carried out under counterpressure for the bottling of carbonated beverages. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine.
After a filling process has been completed, the filled beverage bottles are transported or conveyed to a closing machine, which is often a rotary closing machine. A revolving or rotary machine comprises a rotor, which revolves around a central, vertical machine axis. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. A transporting or conveying arrangement can utilize transport star wheels as well as linear conveyors. A closing machine closes bottles by applying a closure, such as a screw-top cap or a bottle cork, to a corresponding bottle mouth. Closed bottles are then usually conveyed to an information adding arrangement, wherein information, such as a product name or a manufacturer's information or logo, is applied to a bottle. A closing station and information adding arrangement may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement. Bottles are then sorted and packaged for shipment out of the plant.
Many beverage bottling plants may also possibly comprise a rinsing arrangement or rinsing station to which new, non-return and/or even return bottles are fed, prior to being filled, by a conveyer arrangement, which can be a linear conveyor or a combination of a linear conveyor and a starwheel. Downstream of the rinsing arrangement or rinsing station, in the direction of travel, rinsed bottles are then transported to the beverage filling machine by a second conveyer arrangement that is formed, for example, by one or more starwheels that introduce bottles into the beverage filling machine.
It is a further possibility that a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can be controlled by a central control arrangement, which could be, for example, a computerized control system that monitors and controls the operation of the various stations and mechanisms of the beverage bottling plant.
In many areas, for example also in the pharmaceutical, foodstuffs or beverage industry, it is necessary and/or may be desired to package products or to fill them into containers in a sterile or germ-free manner and then to close said containers in a germ-free manner. In this case, the principle of sterilizing the packaging used by means of heating it is also known (hot sterilization). Said hot sterilization, however, is not possible or is not desirable in many cases, for example on account of the high energy consumption or on account of the danger of destroying or damaging the container, for example if made of plastics materials (e.g. PET).
To avoid, restrict, and/or minimize hot sterilization, among other things, a method is known for sterilizing the insides of containers using electron radiation, i.e. for electron sterilization or electron disinfection. In the case of the known method, the treatment of the containers is effected by way of an electron beam, which has a beam intensity or output in the order of one hundred to two hundred fifty kiloelectron volt, such that the electron beam, for sterilization of the interior, is introduced into the respective container through the container opening. During the treatment, the radiation source or the treatment head formed by said radiation source is situated outside the respective container and above the container mouth of the container that is arranged standing upright during the treatment. In this case, the distance between the treatment head or the radiation source and the inside surface of the container to be treated is relatively large, i.e. the electron radiation has to or should cover a relatively large path before it contacts the inside surface of the container to be treated, and, in addition, for example in the case of containers that are realized as bottles, the radiation cross section determined by the cross section of the container or bottle mouth is relatively small, such that to achieve the necessary and/or desired sterility or the dose of radiation ensuring said sterility, a high output of electron radiation and/or a relative long treatment duration are necessary and/or desired.
A sterilization of the interior of containers by way of electron radiation through the container wall is not possible as the range of said beams, at least with reasonable intensities or outputs of the electron beams, is very small in the material conventionally used for packaging means.
To avoid, restrict, and/or minimize damaging the material of the container, for example also in the case of containers made of plastics material where high radiation doses of electron radiation result in the material becoming brittle, it is necessary and/or desired to have an expensive system of diaphragms which essentially ensures or promotes that the electron radiation output by the treatment head is actually introduced exclusively or substantially exclusively into the interior of each container being treated and does not contact regions of the container wall surrounding the container mouth.